Over the past five years, we’ve worked with a variety of licensed professionals at Bigar Creative. Our agency primarily focuses on those in the healthcare space now, but we do have other licensed professionals on our client roster such as attorneys and accountants. Here are five things to keep in mind if you are freelancing (in any way) with a licensed professional.

Never Assume. Chances are you didn’t go to law school or medical school. Remember that you are not the expert and your client is likely NOT expecting you to be. They are hiring you to be in expert in your field to help grow their field/business. Don’t be afraid to ask questions before posting or speaking on behalf of any licensed professional. Your actions could have major consequences for your client if you assume you know the answer.

Come Up With A Schedule. Licensed professionals are usually very busy people. It’s your job to find a way to provide communication and ideas without bombarding them with 5 emails or phone calls each day. At Bigar Creative, we’ve designed weekly content calendars which, though a lot of work on the front end for us, helps the week go smoothly on the content front. This allows us to check in and touch base once a week which is great for everyone. We believe good content is planned content.

Make Their Lives Easier. You constantly have to prove value through results, hard work and management skills. In addition to your schedule, come up with a system of reports, analytics, and suggestions each month. Handle simple tasks that you can take off their plate (remember never assume).

Licensed professionals make for some of the best clients!

If you are thinking of freelancing in any way for a licensed professional, there’s a lot to know before jumping in. Make sure everything from your onboarding process to execution, reporting, and beyond is flawless before offering your services.

In a few short days, Facebook will pull the plug on the third-party data sharing feature. This means advertisers will have to get that data on their own. The ‘Partner Categories’ ad targeting option was a BELOVED feature by many marketers…our team included!

It allowed us to target consumer behaviors, lifestyles, location, age, INCOME, hobbies (I once targeted people over the age of 65 who recently returned from a vacation) and other factors.

Facebook’s third-party data program feature was basically an all-inclusive treasure trove for advertisers. When we bought ads using Partner Categories, Facebook allocated a percentage of money to cover the data costs from the bid price.

Another fun fact is that Facebook won’t be changing the price of their ads even though they are removing the data feature. So, we’ll be paying the same amount we paid for ads with detailed targeting minus the detailed marketing data they once included.

Oracle Data Cloud is just one example of a “data broker” who gathers information by targeting browsers, public records, and purchases. The changes mean that marketers will now have to gather third-party data themselves by using companies like Oracle.

We have the Cambridge Analytica scandal to thank for the new privacy and data protection practices. But, overall it’s a good thing! Now there’s more transparency on data collection both as a user and advertiser. It will just take a little more work on the advertising side of things to keep ad costs down.

It seems like everyday there’s something new! As a social media marketing company, it’s our job to keep up with ALL of the latest trends and updates (which you can imagine is quite the job!)

A few days ago, we found out about a new Facebook regulation you probably didn’t even know about. It appears Facebook is ramping up their security efforts even more by deleting inactive advertising accounts.

What Does This Mean For My Business?

If you have an ad account in Business Manager, keep it active! Facebook now frowns upon having multiple, inactive advertising accounts in Business Manager. The key word here is inactive. I’m working on finding out the minimum daily advertising spend that Facebook considers active (my guess now is $1).

It’s been a marketing hack to set up a few advertising accounts to “keep them in your pocket”- so to speak. Marketers would do this in case one advertising account was flagged and/or shut down. We call it Facebook Jail. We hear it’s REALLY hard to get out of. (We only do legal and ethical ads so none of our clients have been in Facebook Jail on our watch)

Now there’s no more (inactive) “back up” accounts! This makes it even more important than EVER to have someone on your team working in the field.

Keep your advertising accounts active! Once they are frozen or flagged, it’s pretty much goodbye (unless you have a connection).

Health is a business like any other business. Doctors are and should be using social media to reach more patients. The only (slightly major) difference is that medical professionals can face a hefty fine or even lose their license to practice over a social media snafu. When it comes to HIPAA, it doesn’t matter if the violation is online or offline which complicates things with the popularity of social media. Here’s a look at 4 common HIPAA violations that some people might not even realize are violations…

1. Posting information about specific patients (even without using their name) without their written consent. Example Violation: Posting about a patient after a car accident and saying something like “should have worn his seatbelt”. You can’t post information that could make a patient identifiable in any way.

2. Posting photos of patients in any way- even if they aren’t clearly identifiable. You don’t need any example for this one!

3. Accidental background shares. Example Violation: This could be as innocent as taking a staff photo and accidentally capturing a patient or document in the background. *Have a photo policy in your office about photo sharing*

4. Assuming posts are private. Example Violation: A doctor summarizing a specific patient (again, no names needed) on her personal Facebook page because “it’s personal”. It’s not. The same goes for groups, forums or gossip columns/blogs. The general rule of thumb is that the Internet and social media are not private.

Ok, so what can you post on social media if you’re a doctor or medical professional? Here are some ideas!

Health tips

Events patients might like to attend

Research in your field

Honors, awards and achievements (build your social proof!)

Blog posts that incorporate all of the above

Above all, make sure that all staff members understand your office’s HIPAA requirements. And, when it comes to your social media, let us handle the content and posting so you don’t have to worry about violations.